Interpretive Summary: The boll weevil is an insect pest of cotton, which originally invaded the U.S. from Mexico a little over a century ago. Tremendous effort and resources are being invested in eradicating the weevil from the U.S., and the threat of weevils flying into eradication zones from neighboring areas that are still infested is of great concern. Very little is known about how far a weevil is likely to migrate, and it is a difficult problem to investigate. To obtain information on boll weevil migration patterns, we developed DNA markers called "microsatellites" to study variation in DNA from weevils collected across eight U.S. states and northeast Mexico. We report the sequences of 14 of these markers, 12 of which will be useful in future studies of boll weevil migration. The availability of these markers will be of great value to scientists trying to identify where boll weevils have come from that are reintroduced to eradication zones.

Technical Abstract:
The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis Boheman) is a major insect pest of cotton in North America. Dispersal activity poses a threat to ongoing eradication efforts in the U.S., but little is known about the frequency of long-distance migration. Nuclear molecular markers are needed to assess gene flow in relation to geographic distance. A biotin-enrichment strategy was employed to develop microsatellite markers for the boll weevil. Of 23 loci isolated, 14 were polymorphic with 3-10 alleles per locus. Twelve of the polymorphic loci showed Mendelian inheritance and are likely to be useful in population genetics studies.